Greg Hinz On Politics

Mayoral latest: Chico ads, Emanuel on teacher strikes, new poll

Lots of mayoral news, with both the weekend and Monday morning bringing developments: Gery Chico goes on TV and gets a big endorsement; Rahm Emanuel wants to ban teacher strikes; a new poll shows Mr. Emanuel well ahead and the Greens issue a mayoral wish list.

One is labeled "From our neighborhoods, for our neighborhoods," and is pretty clearly aimed at contrasting Mr. Chico's local-government experience with Mr. Emanuel's Washington jobs. The other says he'll create new jobs by slashing red tape.

The spots are OK. But I suspect he'll get more benefit from an endorsement over the weekend by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago.

The endorsement is a bit of a shot at Mr. Emanuel, with whom Mr. Gutierrez served in Congress, and Miguel del Valle, a close ally in the Harold Washington days. Mr. Gutierrez doesn't like Mr. Emanuel's actions on immigration at all, and apparently thinks Mr. Chico is more electable than Mr. Del Valle.

Meanwhile, Mr. Emanuel told the Sun-Times that he backs a proposed bill to forbid teachers from striking and supports other changes to base tenure and pay policies on teacher performance. He also wants more charter schools.

Neither exactly will ingratiate him with the Chicago Teachers' Union. But it's already made it clear it will endorse Mr. Chico or Carol Moseley Braun — not Mr. Emanuel.

Mr. Emanuel did get some good news from the first poll — at least, the first one that's become public —conducted since James Meeks and Danny Davis dropped out of the race.

Though Team Braun attempted to spin the results as really good for her, in fact it was at least as good for Mr. Emanuel. She moved up from 13% to 26% —not a huge surprise, given that she's the only major African-American still in the field — but he gained 6% in this latest poll, and now stands at 42%. That perhaps puts Mr. Emanuel within striking range of the 50% needed for a first-round victory.

Mr. Chico remains at around 10%.

The survey was conducted for a unit of the Teamsters' Union between last Monday and Thursday and has an error margin of plus or minus 4.4 points.

Finally, a coalition of Chicago environmental groups is asking the candidates a series of questions, including whether they'd shut down the Southwest Side's Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants, buy more renewable energy, boost recycling and disinfect sewage effluent pumped into the Chicago River.